Then What?
Guest Post: by ‘TripodXL’
It’s the Denver Broncos at San Diego and you can’t wait to see what Peyton does to the Chargers. The ref signals the start and the Denver kicker puts his all into the kick to start the game. As the ball shoots up into an arc above the field, the picture changes. The view looks like the presidential podium, but it’s different! The announcer states somberly that this is an emergency press conference, by the President of the United States. After some minutes of obvious disarray and confusion, president Obama comes to the podium. The scene behind the podium looks like the bottom floor of a missile silo, with big doors and thick looking concrete walls.
“My fellow Americans, other citizens of the world, this evening, at 0330 local time, American intelligence satellites observed what appeared to be several nuclear explosions over the city of Tehran, Iran and numerous other explosions around their country. At this time we are gathering information as to the nature and origin of these explosions. This is an emergency of the utmost severity, and we will keep you informed of developments as information becomes available. We ask for your cooperation during these trying times.” With that president Obama purses his lips, lifts his head high and steps off the podium and out of view.
Immediately afterward the emergency broadcast tone sounds on the TV. When the tone stops the woman on the screen states that she is the DHS/FEMA coordinator for your region and she has some information for you…
Then what? I don’t know, do you? I’ll bet not, but if I was going to guess, here are some of my guesses. First, all air travel will be ONLY on an emergency basis. News about the emergency MUST come from official government sources on sanctioned channels. All interstate travel is banned, temporarily, except in an emergency. Only emergency grocery and fuel purchases of LIMITED amounts are allowed for the next seven days. The National Guard has been called up under Title 10 U.S.C. and now they are part of the federal military system, indefinitely. Starting tomorrow there will be a curfew from sunset to sunrise for all people not going to and from work by the most direct route, or on an emergency to the closest recognized healthcare facility. The ONLY people not affected by this are the police and fire departments, on call emergency providers and APPROPRIATE federal personnel. There will be no “unofficial” gatherings of people in public. For the near term ALL public gatherings of people are banned for your own safety. Anyone possessing firearms in public are subject to immediate arrest, seizure of property and internment with out exception…and on and on. Then what?
As you and your loved ones sit there, in stunned silence, you realize that you have lost your freedom, your complete way of life, at least temporarily, if not forever. Then what? When the awe of what just happened wears off and everyone starts to talk at once, you wonder “what did just happen?”
Will you be thinking about the OTHER 200 pounds of rice and beans you haven’t bought yet? The four empty 55-gallon water barrels in the garage just needed some bleach, two months ago. Hadn’t made that trip to the warehouse store to get your list done, the one on the refrigerator, that’s been there since April. Haven’t bought the firewood for the winter, yet. The fuel oil/propane hasn’t been topped off yet.
What else is going to happen? Will the world economy crash? Will Russia “defend” their ally, Iran? Will the Muslim nations announce a united “war” on the infidels? What will China, India and Pakistan do? Will you have a job after all this? Will there be more nuclear bombs set off around the world? Will there be a world war? What will happen to your family, to you?
Do you have answers to these questions? I have some, probably more than most but I have to confess, I don’t know how to deal with everything. What an empty feeling to realize that you hadn’t done all that you needed to do, hadn’t done what you could have done, and how you let opportunity slip by, when it was so easy to do. Then what?
Maybe you can feed your family for a few months. Maybe you can sneak out of town to your lake house. Maybe you won’t get caught, maybe. Then what?
Yep, that’s the big question, “then what?” I really hope 2012 is a bust as far as survival goes. Then what? I keep prepping, and I suggest you do the same. When Y2K was a bust, my wife said, “See, I told you so, you wasted all that money and didn’t need it”. Well first off it wasn’t that much money and second off, I’m still eating it or using it and have prepped even more. Prepping is like insurance…you hope you never need it, but have comfort in its’ existence. If I spent in one year, every 4-5 years, what I spent EVERY year on homeowners, car and health insurance, I would have EVERYTHING ever mentioned on this site. I would have a four years supply of food, water and toilet paper. You name it I would have it. Prepping done consistently isn’t expensive. I hope this causes some thought. Let us know what you think would happen in the scenario. Survive well. Enjoy.
Excellent post TripodXL. You should write action novels heh unfortunately half the population are asleep and playing xbox or iphone games. I guess when it does happen it will be like a movie; rapid confusion with unbelievable consequences. Be safe.
Good article.
FEMA and the feds can hand us all the directives they want about what we can or can’t do after the SHTF. Good luck enforcing them, though. I can’t see the American public just rolling over and being passive lapdogs to the government. My first obligation is to take care of myself and my family, not to obey FEMA.
@Nick; Love ya buddy, and agree 100% with the sentiment. HOWEVER, the VAST majority of people aren’t prepared and when you are HUNGRY, your kids are hungry…you do what you’re told to do, so you can get fed!!! People that are prepared DON”T have to obey FEMA, the rest do. Which group is larger? Just sayin’. WE must persevere and persuade others to prepare as well. The trend IS growing, however, I think it is not fast enough. I suggest everyone GET COMPLETELY PREPARED by the end of October. Obama (and this is not political, simply reality) is a narcissistic, megalomaniac and power monger, and will be very dangerous when he doesn’t have to answer to anyone i.e. after the election whether he wins or not. The general American public (the people that think you’re stupid and crazy, like all us preppers)will do whatever they need to do to feed their families. IMHO. Survive well. Enjoy.
@ TripodXL: Great article! and it seems pretty believeable that it could actually go down like that. I don’t know if you follow the Drudge Report, but there are two articles on there right now about Iran conducting a pre-emptive strike on Israel. They said that they could do it and will do it if they find that Israel is fully prepared to go to war. What’s more, they stated that regardless of whether Israel acts with the cooperation of the US, Iran will view it as a threat from the US. All US bases will be attacked overseas and I’m sure they will try to bring it onto US shores. As I’m sure you’re all aware, over the past few months, Russian military has twice entered or was close to entering US Airspace back in July. Additionally, a Russian submarine went undetected in the Gulf of Mexico for what the US believed to be several weeks. This information wasn’t even known until after the Russian submarine had already vacated US waters. Could it be that the Russians are spying for Iran and testing us? According to media reports, it’s said that Iran has given the green light to terror cells that have positioned themselves within the US; further, they have been told to act if war breaks out. It seems plausible that we may be closer to disaster than the administration lets on. Iran knows that as a result of our fragile economy we will suffer a great economic impact. Just food for thought.
Goodluck & God bless.
If I’m not mistaken, the Reds recently sold Iran one of their older subs. Perhaps what you are describing happened was actually a test drive so the Iranians could see what it was capable of.
We are too busy borrowing money to be everyones mommy and daddy and paying their bills as they slap us in the face. Of course our officials will be just fine since the taxpayers built underground fortresses for them.
Nice one TP! I sincerely believe they would have a difficult time enforcing the curfew. People today are not so gullible as to be pushed around by the NG (their neighbors). I could see community organizers setting up distractions for the totally unprepared NG while others go about their business. While I believe this form of Martial Law would be obeyed by citizens of 1929 as they obediently turned in their gold, savvy citizens of today would quickly educate their friends and neighbors as to what NOT to do to survive the bumbling and incompetent whims of a guberment grasping at straws.
I agree, it is the societal chaos that would endanger everyone, resulting from the panic of a generation(s) of dependent ‘Grasshoppers’.
@chiller; Man, I agree with the sentiment, truly I do. The difficulty is the numbers. As Ken says there are a LOT of grasshoppers and not nearly as many ants. In metro areas the curfew would be easily enforced. If you want to eat, if you don’t want to be carted off to a “FEMA” camp (I don’t believe in these as such BTW, though it will become a self fulfilling prophecy)and leave your family defenseless, OR you’re just one of the mindless drooling idiots that believe everything the gubment tells you, you’ll do what you’re told, period. Oh, initially you’ll get a mix of patriots, “occupiers” and just plain old anarchists that will “fight back”, but most WILL NOT be preppers. They will have no wherewithal to avoid the oppression of, and resist the DHS/FEMA Gestapo for any length of time. OH, yeah, they’ll know they’re getting screwed by the gubment, just like in 1929, but they won’t be able to mount any significant resistance to it, in the cities. That’s very SAD. Our country is in a very sad situation. The next 5 years will be the most formative years since the American Revolutionary War. No shit, really! I don’t have a crystal ball, but this man in the presidency is VERY dangerous, very dangerous. We have disregarded him at our peril. I hope this is not a fatal mistake. In the long run, the people in the countryside will control the food and therefore at some point in time, control the gubment, but it will take some time. How many lives will be lost by then? How many lives will it take to get our country back, if we can get it back? One third of the nation wanted freedom in 1776, one third didn’t care and one third were Tories!!! Think about those numbers as the are very apropos today. Stay thirsty my friend, for freedom and self sustainment. Survive well. Enjoy.
While the founding fathers penned the 2nd amendment, I doubt it entered their mind it was being created for a nation of cowards…less 1%. I’m still hopeful more would come to the call (underground) should the evil ones press their agenda. I also pray for high ranking Pentagon types to intervene when the time comes.
@chiller; My friend, I’m not calling the nation cowards. However, “to whom much is given, much is expected”. Leadership, is an issue that speaks volumes about a people. WE have always been leaders. WE don’t sit and let others make decisions for us. WE make them. Someone among a group of people will lead. WILL LEAD! I expect it. It is OUR nature as Americans. The reality is that there is not a MAJORITY of people that tend to do anything…from lattes to dress to whether or not to own a weapon. People have to be cajoled, persuaded and LED to rise up and revolt, IF THAT IS WHAT IS NEEDED. Oh, what a terrible position to be in. Be a hero or be a pariah, no middle ground available. It’s a lot harder to be a leader in that environment as it requires FULL COMMITMENT to achieve!!! It is a conundrum. I am one of those willing to lead, but reluctant to do so, not for fear of the consequences, but for fear of failure to lead adequately. It is a daunting task. Survive well. Enjoy.
reasonable speculation, good job. but it might be weak in that many Americans may feel that such a scenario, being thousands of miles away, would fail to amount to an emergency. the business in new york has been called a “foreign policy coup”, and, whatever it was, been used for rationalisation of domestic and foreign policies that seem inconsistent with long established law. similarly, taking that affair as a guide, one might speculate that TXL’s scenario ought to include some sort of large domestic encore. Discretion prevents my giving an example, but everyone can imagine. Of course, he’s only described an opening – such event(s) might follow, either genuine or contrived. I myself, having spoken with physicists at Cal Tech about the matter, rather expect that many satellites and undersea cables would fail to operate – so the TV and ‘net might not work, or work poorly. The design of infernal machines to ruin com systems is trivial. One assumes such machines are on hand and possessed by numerous governments. As to survival, Primo Levy addressed survival in the camps – and suggests that good shoes, youth, vigor and language skills were key qualities, not that the boyscout motto is not valid. again, good job. let us all hope for peace and goodness. pax
To All; Thank you for the kind accolades. I write these things because I feel they are needed. I write about what seems to be obvious about the direction of the immediate future. I am a prepper of a particular kind and feel led to provide insight into what is coming. Thank you, again. Survive well. Enjoy.
Great article tri pod. This is exactly the scenario i keep preaching. I believe the next logical step for Iran would then be to send an emp weapon over here and then we would be sitting ducks in the dark.
Despair. Missing two things. The precursor ff nuke here–and the door to door in force. I Must be a terrorist,(I have ammo and a years worth of food). Watch the video of that poor vet kid getting picked up and sent to a psych ward. Just like that–or some blackwater mercenaries just kicking in the door because you didn’t turn in your gun per the second announcement. I saw Dachau. Its not for me. You will have to make your decisions early and alone. The reality is less than 1% will resist. We lost already. But we will disincent quite a few creeps for hire; thugs that don’t get the whole constitution thing. This is not a drill.
Short term —
Do nothing conspicuous. Avoid authority figures when possible and do not challenge them in any way. The “Moscow Rules” are in full effect, namely:
Assume nothing.
Never go against your gut.
Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
Don’t look back; you are never completely alone.
Go with the flow, blend in.
Vary your pattern and stay within your cover.
Lull them into a sense of complacency.
Don’t harass the opposition.
Pick the time and place for action.
Keep your options open.
–
In a couple of weeks, things will begin to consolidate. Either the FEMA/DHS/Active Duty/Guard/local LEO presence will learn to work with the community or they won’t. If the former, they may be heavy-handed, but not toward “respectable local citizens” which is what you’d better be. If not, everyone is in for a world of hurt.
Active duty, Guardsman and local police have wives and kids. (So do DHS and FEMA, though that might be debated.) If they’re constantly harassing, intimidating and “detaining” you and yours, the same thing is almost certainly happening to their families. Morale starts to plummet under these conditions and everyone from The Old Man to PVT Snuffy begins to wonder if they’re in the right place, doing the right thing. The temptation to turn a blind eye here and there kicks in.
If things drag on, and they still refuse to integrate into the community things grow even worse. The locals are unhappy in the extreme and people stop going to work. (This is in part what killed the Soviet Union.) Rumors, some perhaps true, begin circulating about retaliation toward families of what are now seen as occupation forces. The massive civilian infrastructure that makes our military what it is begins to grind to a halt. Food, fuel and other supplies cease being delivered according to schedule. Shortages cause the occupiers to “requisition” whatever is needed or wanted from the civilian population. This engenders resentment and what may have been a strained relationship becomes outright hostile.
Desertions begin as morale continues to plummet and the legality of orders is questioned. A civilian underground/insurgency forms, welcoming deserters. Guerrilla war begins to be waged. If command, control and logistics continue to falter, the occupation devolves to a lower and lower level of technology, eventually disintegrating into groups of regional warlords, many of these backed by the citizenry.
This is of course a nightmare scenario that no one should ever hope to face. My point here is that if FEMA/DHS hopes to accomplish any of their goals (whatever they may be) they need to act quickly. Even in the cities, loyalty to the government only extends so far. We are talking about a well-armed civilian populace and a military that can only function with their voluntary cooperation.
It would be a rotten deal, the whole way around.